Case study with Eleanor Ghebache

Case study with Eleanor Ghebache, Marketing Officer, Preston City Council

Background to involvement with Encounter

Preston City Council works with Encounter on a continual basis; once one year's festival has finished the City Council start working on the following year.

The evaluation from the previous year plays a significant role in informing the marketing and communications activity.

We work all year round to promote engagement and all the brilliant acts and community groups that are involved in the festival. We have started planning for next year, which will be Year 10 of Encounter Festival.

Motivation for involvement

Encounter is one of Preston City Council's art festivals. It meets the Council's aim of encouraging inclusion and community involvement with arts events; engaging with groups and individuals who might not normally be involved with the arts. Encounter supports Preston City Council's aim for communicating and integrating with communities and individuals.

Each year, Encounter is Preston's large scale outdoors art festival, and we work all year round in trying to encourage engagement and promote all of the acts involved.

Encounter provides a really good opportunity to display free arts and culture to the people of Preston; it really does help to reach the different audience groups, especially those from a lower socio-economic background, to provide an introduction to live performance, arts, culture and music. Positioning it slap bang in the City Centre is really good for that outreach engagement as well.

Activity

Year round marketing activity is undertaken using social media and the website to generate engagement, build brand awareness and promote the date of the festival.

The ongoing marketing aims to both generate and maintain awareness over the year. Marketing activity for 2024 supported the rebranding of the festival.

We work all year round; managing the Encounter social media channels and website, so throughout the year before the festival dates in September, we build brand awareness and engagement on those channels to keep the message of Encounter in people's minds.

Also, this year we went through a rebranding process, so we've got all the new branding in place, bringing further brand awareness for this year, including more out of home campaigns, visual ads and other marketing campaigns.

Further marketing activity in the form of designing the programme and supporting billboards and banners is undertaken to support the festival itself; making the festival's presence known in the City.

It's a whole range of activity, as we get closer to the festival dates we have the programme, then we design, print and distribute, begin our large-scale marketing campaigns, create billboard ads, and this year we've had street banners in key footfall areas, to enhance the festival presence in the City as we get closer to the festival dates.

What worked well for 2024

Preston's good transport links were used as a mechanism to promote the festival further afield. Ambitions are both to increase the footfall and extend the reach of the festival, with the findings from the evaluation informing the following year's marketing activity to support this.

Preston has excellent transport links, we've got the bus station and the train station, we've already gathered evaluation feedback from attendees who've come from Burnley and further afield. Each year one of our main ambitions is to drive more footfall and I think this year, with learning from the evaluation from the year before, it's really put us in a good position to grow the festival year on year

The Torchlight Procession worked very well in 2024. There was a conscious move to integrate the evening's procession into the daytime activity; to provide an ongoing flow of activity.

In previous years, there was a gap between the two which created a lull before the Torchlight Procession. Providing entertainment in the form of DJs and bars outside of The Harris between the daytime activities and Torchlight Procession provided a continuation and focus of activity. Previously this has been experienced on the Sunday in Winckley Square and was something which has been proactively and successfully addressed this year for Saturday.

What worked particularly well was the Torchlight Procession. Usually there is a bit of a gap between the programmes in the day and the Torchlight, as it doesn't start until the evening, but this year,

The Flag Market outside The Harris, right in the centre of town, had DJs playing and hosted a couple of bars. The area had a bit more of a nightlife feel to it, there were floodlights and lasers.

The gap between programming was filled quite nicely, for people to go and have something to eat in the city centre or stay around and wait for the procession to come through. I think the year before it felt like there was too much of a gap, but this year everyone was there and ready for the procession and fireworks - it created a good atmosphere.

What could be improved for 2025

The evaluation from the previous year's festival strongly influences the direction and focus of the following year's marketing activity.

The growth strategy and decisions on where to most effectively focus resource and budget is decided in January following consideration of the evaluation findings.

A key improvement we incorporate year on year would be analysing the evaluation from the previous year and trying to identify where people have heard about the festival and then putting more resources into that venture next year. Our growth strategy begins at the start of the year in January having taken on board the evaluation and where best to spend the budget and put the resource.

Further engagement with, and involvement from, the community would further support the focus of the festival. Increasing involvement with other community events over the year could help to develop awareness and involvement. Increasing involvement, especially with participation in the Torchlight Procession, could be supported through Encounter's attendance and presence at other events over the year; making it a two way involvement.

A key strand is the community work which goes on year-round. It would be good, where possible, if there was the resource for some more popup events throughout the year so the activity wasn't so concentrated on the festival dates. Perhaps have a presence at other community fairs and festivals throughout the year and then hopefully that would help from a marketing point of view to get the community engaged early so we can capitalise on word-of-mouth marketing.

There are other events throughout the year, but it would be good to maybe increase that. Especially because a lot of the Preston community groups are present in the Torchlight Procession, such as the Caribbean Carnival and Preston City Mela, who each have their own festival, so it would be good to be involved.

Contribution

Preston City Council contributes to Encounter in the form of personnel resource, funding, process support and marketing.

It's funding, Preston City Council's Cultural Services Team, the Executive Producer and the Admin Assistant, and all of us working together to cover the whole range of the festival; marketing, operations, business development, health & safety, programming, it all comes together.

Encounter directly supports Preston City Council with its aim of community involvement and empowerment.

The festival directly reaches and engages community groups, providing access to arts and culture. 

Encounter is a really good example of the Council's aims, such as community empowerment, platforming artists, bringing free arts and culture to the City, building an opportunity for Civic Pride, and also sharing ownership of the key events, such as the Torchlight Procession, with the community getting involved.

Encounter going forwards

2025 will see the tenth Encounter. As their event, Preston City Council will be involved and envisage the tenth year being an ambitious event.

It's the tenth year next year, so it will be a big year for the festival, Encounter Festival was brought in to bridge the gap between Preston Guilds as they're once every twenty years and provide an arts and culture offer in between. Each year we are trying to grow the ambition.

Further developing the reach and engagement of the festival is an ongoing aim; to increase audience numbers. Learning from the evaluation is a key contributor to future activity.

From our perspective, building on the reach and engagement from this year's festival to increase the growth in terms of audience figures and online presence for next year. Learn from the evaluation, build on the reach and then drive more engagement on the run up to the festival are the three key areas I'll be focussing on for the next Encounter Festival.

Encounter could be more involved in community activity over the year, such as having a presence at other community events. This could be a keyway to further engage with the community and hard to reach audiences.

I just think being a direct part of the other communities' festivals, perhaps having a stall with information and a chance for people to sign up to the procession or to hear their ideas on how they could contribute would be a good idea moving forward. Especially the groups who are in the procession, as a lot of these community festival audiences throughout the year could be deemed as hard to reach groups, so it would be helpful in reaching a new demographic or a different style of audience.

Rebranding

Encounter Festival had undergone rebranding for 2024.